


Hate to Sleep Alone

by snewvilliurs



Series: The NORA House Chronicles [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 03:19:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/878803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snewvilliurs/pseuds/snewvilliurs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-XIII, pre-XIII-2.  It can get surprisingly cold in New Bodhum, and the lack of heating around the house keeps Lebreau from sleeping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hate to Sleep Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meguhime](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=meguhime).



The weather on Gran Pulse could be unforgiving. This, along with the diseases and the unavailability of provisions, was one of the biggest challenges they had faced when settling down to New Bodhum. In the summer, it was hard to think it might be any different than the paradise they had known on Cocoon; the weather was fair, the tides not too extreme, the sun nearly constant, warming the sand and making the sea sparkle the same way Phoenix did the waters of Bodhum.

But then the seasons shifted with time, and the rains came. They brought with them cold weather that anyone having spent even a day in Bodhum thought to be deadly cold; this was something Gadot could have never thought of while designing the houses, and simply left people to become more creative than ever for way to keep themselves warm. For Lebreau, it meant keeping herself even busier, never stopping long enough to become cold.

During the day, at least.

Gadot woke up in the middle of the night only to notice light down the hall on his way out of the bathroom, and though he wanted nothing more than to go back to his room and burrow under the warmth of his covers, it was unusual to see anyone awake at that time since Maqui had gotten his workshop. His bare feet were quiet on the cold hardwood floors as he made his way to the source of the light, finding Lebreau sitting huddled under a large pile of thick blankets, only her head and hands poking out from it as she held a steaming mug between her hands. He smelled fresh, comforting herbs, and hoped they did something to warm her up.

“What’re you doing up?” he asked as he moved to sit down to her, hands just below the spot where the sleeves of his t-shirt ended. Damn it, was it cold.

“Freezing, what else? I got tired of shivering in my bed so I figured I’d move around. You?”

“Just went to take a leak. I’m not that cold, at least not in my bed.”

He smiled as he rocked to the side to lightly knock their shoulders together, not so much that it might make her spill her tea. She made a small sound at the back of her throat at the contact, then shuffled to lean against him. “What’s up with you? You’re a furnace.”

“I dunno?” he answered with a shrug, wrapping an arm around her shoulders (or where he figured they were under the blankets). When she yawned, not even bothering to cover her mouth as she opened it wider than he thought it humanly possible, he rose to his feet and offered her a hand to pull her up as well. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

“But it’s cold,” she said in a quiet whine, a voice reserved only for quiet moments like this with him, and very rarely, Snow. It was a side of her that made him smile.

“I know, that’s why I’m coming with.”

She said nothing, but her smile did enough; she set down her mug on the floor and left it there as she stood and followed after him, as quickly as she could while still wrapped around the blankets. It was with a shiver that she put them down on her bed, burying herself within them as if she was in danger of freezing right up if she stayed out in the open for too long as he chuckled at her.

“Are you laughing at me?” she asked threateningly, shivering.

He smiled and joined her under the covers, making sure not to laugh this time when she curled up against him with the speed of a magnet. “You’re just bein’ cute.”

“I’m not cute,” she said, sleepily. “You’re warm.”

Lebreau fell asleep within minutes, discarding her pillows to use him instead. He had to keep his body in an awkward position not to bother her, and didn’t feel his arm in the morning, but he was happy to look down and see little more than the dark mass of her hair, and the way her shoulder, lifting and falling softly with her slow breathing, looked even smaller in the oversized shirt she wore to bed. He wasn’t sure whether it had once belonged to him or Snow, but simply seeing her wear it made him smile as he fell asleep with his chin tucked over her head.

The fact that this became a habit during the rainy season was exactly why a heating system wasn’t installed in either of their rooms.

(In the future, it also became a habit for him to stumble into her bed when he was too tired to walk all the way to his own down the hall, no matter how warm it was outside. It became a problem when she began seeing a certain ex-soldier; but that was another story for another time.)


End file.
